WPF Descriptions in enumerations

Supposed that we have these enumerations

''' <summary>
''' Type of animal
''' </summary>
Public Enum Animals
    Cat
    Cow
    Monkey
End Enum

And we want to add some descriptions into the enumerations. For example, I want not just ordinary cat, but a spinning cat. Monkey is mainstream, but flying monkey, now we’re talking!

We can just add the descriptions in the enumerations like this

''' <summary>
''' Type of animal
''' </summary>
Public Enum Animals
    <Description("Spinning Cat")> Cat
    <Description("Jumping Cow")> Cow
    <Description("Flying Monkey")> Monkey
End Enum

And to read it, we will create a function to read the description in the tag.

Credits : http://www.vbforums.com/showthread.php?t=550710

This function will gets the Description attribute of an enum constant, if any. Otherwise it gets the string name of the enum member.

        Public Shared Function GetEnumDescription(ByVal EnumConstant As [Enum]) As String
            Dim fi As Reflection.FieldInfo = EnumConstant.GetType().GetField(EnumConstant.ToString())
            Dim aattr() As DescriptionAttribute = DirectCast(fi.GetCustomAttributes(GetType(DescriptionAttribute), False), DescriptionAttribute())
            If aattr.Length > 0 Then
                Return aattr(0).Description
            Else
                Return EnumConstant.ToString()
            End If
        End Function

Example usage given :

Dim cat as string = GetEnumDescription(Animal.Cat)

Tada!